TaDaaaaa....!

The big reveal finally happened on Easter Monday with the removal of the scaffolding.  Great to see the boys on site on a public holiday - I'm sure our neighbours were equally thrilled at the early morning wake up call 😳 The house is looking great and PD is making good progress.  Other things to happen this week were: fitting of the majority of architraves, doors and skirting boards plus the bath in the master ensuite and down pipes outside.  We were also surprised to see that, somewhere along the line, the final render coat (mud pack colour) was applied around bedroom 4. Didn't even notice that until the scaffold came down.  The chippies should be back to finish fixing this week (cue next invoice!) and it would be great to see the brickies back to start/complete the garage.  Then we'll be on the home straight. Yeehaa!

View from the street

Rear of the house across the water

Facade - notice the Mud Pack render. 

Mud pack render finish

Bath in master ensuite - Posh Domaine Oval - just in case you were wondering. 

Double doors to study - Corinthian Deco downstairs. Flush panel upstairs.

Concealed sliding door to theatre

Entrance doors - these will be varnished 

North side.  I'm trying to imagine a pool here? But it seems a looooong way ahead. 

South side.  See the down pipes? The Sanctuary Lakes Architecrural Review Committee gets very excited about these types of details😏

Stairs, Eaves and Cabinets

It's been another week of big changes on site.  As promised, stairs were installed on Tuesday and cabinets went in on Weds and Thurs.  In between all of that, the eaves were completed and the capping on the parapet wall went on (probably as a result of a text that I sent the SS after rain found its way into the house and ran down the newly plastered walls).  But we should be 100% watertight now. Not sure what comes next - probably architraves, doors and painting on the inside and garage once the scaffolding comes down.  It's all go here at Sanctuary Lakes!

Stairs - looking from entry hall.  Cloak room and storage to go underneath.  The beagle is an upgrade!

Stairs and balustrade will be stained to match the laminate flooring. For the void we have bought a large ash spider pendant light from Koala and Tree (below)

Spider pendant for void. 

From the landing looking down towards entrance hall

Kitchen cabinets.  Laminex white at the bottom, oyster linea at the top....apart from the laundry :-(

Silk finish throughout.  Note that we have gone for no handles for a really clean look.  Getting Hettich push-to-open function on overheads, and shark nose detail to base cabinets.  Good choice!!  3 pendant lights for the bench have also been ordered this week - Ambiente pendants from Citta designs in Auckland - and an extra large version for the dining room!!

The island bench is almost 4m long.  We ordered 4 solid elm bar stools from Dare Gallery to sit along here.  Bench tops will be 40mm Essa stone in Crystal Chalk.

San Tropez bar stools in solid elm from Dare Gallery 

Galley with cupboard above fridge space.  Our vintec wine cellar will also go in here - it was a much cheaper option than spending over $1000 for a wine rack above the fridge!

Laundry cupboards.  Bit of a cock-up here.  We wanted oyster linea overhead cupboards but didn't spot that the contract stated white.  It was buried in the WoS section.  Simple oversight but I really think the kitchen manufacturer should have checked with us.  Oh well, it still looks good.

Master ensuite vanity in Jericho finish.  

Render, Plaster, Action!

Another very impressive couple of weeks form PD and our excellent Site Supervisor Matt.  I arrived back from a couple of weeks overseas last Saturday to find the brickwork on the first floor complete, internal insulation installed (including soundproofing to the theatre), and the electrical rough in finished.  Sensing an opportunity to save a few $$ I decided to buy some speaker wire and install that myself before the plasterboard was installed the following week.  So, off to Bunnings we went with every intention to run a few meters into the cavity the following day.  I'm not sure if I was gutted or delighted to find the house full of Chinese plasterers beavering away the next day - a Sunday! While it was great to see them hard at work and making great progress, I was disappointed that my secret speaker wire plans had been well and truly thwarted.  The theatre had already been plastered!!! My intention had always been to go wireless in this new house and use a Sonos sound bar but I have since realised that I can't use that with a projector.  So, it looks like I'm back to the original Sonos plan, which means a new TV and a useless HDMI point in the ceiling.  First world problems....!!!

Anyway, despite that minor setback, the gyprock was complete on Monday (29th Feb) and the skimming done on the Tuesday and Weds.  Also on Wednesday, the renderers were on site and had the majority of it complete within a day.  We are rendering the entire facade and half way down each side.  It's odd that they have rendered before the garage has been built because they'll need to come back to do that.  But the scaffold is still up so I guess they needed to take advantage of that.  Eaves will need to go in before the scaffold comes down, at which point the triple garage can be built.  

So we achieved lock up stage this week (cue very large invoice from PD) although we can still get in to have a sneak around.  That will likely change this week because stairs are due to be installed on Tuesday and cabinets on Thursday. Another big milestone week.

We've also carried on spending.  Gas fire (Matrix GFX-M) ordered from Illusion Fires yesterday and due to be installed immediately after handover.  So pleased that we didn't buy the fire from PD because we've probably saved ourselves 4 or 5 grand!!

And scheduled date for completion.....? 20th June....!! That is significantly quicker than we thought so very happy with that.  Matt thinks we might even get in sooner which would be great because our rental is due for renewal on 23rd June.  We're not going to subject ourselves to the rental stress of our last build but I would rather not pay another month's rent if I can help it.  After all, I now need to buy a new TV and Sonos Soundbar. 😏😏

So that's all for this week.  Here are the latest pics....

Post script (Sunday Night). Went over to the house tonight to find that the cornice had been completed upstairs.  Another Sunday of progress!!!

Insulation and lots of wires in Eve's room.  Wiring terminates in the WSC in Garage

Bath with a view

Facade with bricking (almost) complete.  

Facade. Garage to be built and facade feature, piers etc to be added above study window at right

North side

Bathroom with our enormous party shower

Eve's bathroom.  Freestanding bath will go alongside shower

Master ensuite

Looking back from master bedroom through to rumpus and Eve's room

View from Eve's room looking along Seaview Point

From master bedroom.  Stairs will open up the void and change this completely

From dining area through to kitchen.  Units going in next week :-)

From living area towards kitchen, dining and lounge area.

North side with a peak of the render

South side, PD got so fed up with us and the Sanctuary Lakes Architectural Review Committee that they agreed to render this wall at cost price.  

Facade with render.  Not the final colour/finish

Facade and the result of a big site clear up.  This should go next week!

Facade, triple garage to be built at left 

From across the water :-))))

Cornice fitted, master bed. 

Illusion GFX-M. We chose the pebbles option rather than log effect. Couldn't find an image of that though 😏

Where has the time gone?

I've been very slow in updating the blog.  Can't believe that it's almost a month since the last update and so much has happened since then that I've probably lost track of what happened and when. I haven't actually seen the house for a week as I am currently away on business travel and typing this from the poolside at the JW Marriot hotel in Kuala Lumpur.  It's been such a hectic time that this is the first opportunity I've had to do an update.  Anyway, since the last blog, the roof tiles were finished, scaffold came down, the sissalation went on the bottom floor and the remainder of the windows, both upstairs and down were fitted.  Shower trays were fitted (bit weird that one), scaffolding went up, bricks delivered, sand/cement delivered, power connected, bricklayers cracked on, scaffold came down, water came on and some doors were fitted.  The ground floor bricking was completed by Friday 12th Feb.  This week, Sonia reports that electrical rough in has been completed, site cleared, new scaffold has arrived and the gyprock sheets and cornice have been delivered.  That will start next week, along with brickies (all 7 or 8 of them at a time!) back on site by Wednesday.  All being well the bricklaying will be complete by Friday (but not sure if that will include the garage.  So, overall, it's coming along nicely and I expect to see a big difference when I get home in a week's time.  

We also met with Matt our Site Supervisor and the bricklayer. We met the latter because we had big concerns that the mortar was far too dark for the brick.  He did, however, assure us that it would dry to a much lighter colour in a week or so.  Hope he's right because I'm not sure what we'll do if Sanctuary Lakes don't approve it.  The visit with Matt was very useful - he seems like a good guy who was keen to help with any concerns we had.  True to his word it looks like we'll get lights to the front piers (despite PD repeatedly claiming it wasn't possible - utter nonsense PD - get real please!!!). He's also going to see if we can replace the frosted glass on the 1st floor.  That was required due to council overlooking regulations but we were never consulted on the style of glass and really disapprove of what we ended up with.  I have a plan to rectify that after we move in but PD needs to get that changed.  Go get 'em Matt.

So, that's about it for this week's/months' update. I'll try harder next time....I promise!!

Finishing the roof tiles

Front porch with sissalation

Downstairs Windows in

South side

Future garage and porch

View from the upstairs terrace...not too shabby!

South side ground floor almost done

North side

Porch

Looking from dining to kitchen.  Cooker goes between the 2 Windows

From corner of living towards lichen and lounge area

Front on.  Triple garage will change this completely.